Workin’ hard? Or Hardly Workin’ - Amirite? 🐧💼

Nov 3

Written By Hoby

I’ve made some fairly important decisions (to me at least), and am excited to share the details of my course correction, but first I would like to tell a short story:

It was a million years ago, in what seems to be a different world.

My final assignment in a junior high computer science course was to design and program a simple video game. I was partnered up with a friend, and we enthusiastically shared ideas on what it could be. To my chagrin, I was out of town for a month or so earlier and didn’t learn the code stuff that had been shared during the class.

I did my best to help build the game. I drew the characters, I mapped out levels on graph paper, I checked in with my partner daily to see how it’s going, and to see if there was some other way I could help.

We were going to create a GUN TOTIN’ PENGUIN! I think we named them “Abhor”.

It was a side scrolling 2D kinda deal where you shoot various enemies. Nothing particularly original, but I was pumped.

But days went by without any updates, and the hurdles to continue stack up on themselves. My partner stopped talking with me and this silly little penguin was left in the cold 🪦.

Recently I’ve come to the realization that this pattern has emerged in my adulthood. I partner with a friend or two, I get much too enthusiastic while their enthusiasm putters away.

I am so grateful for everyone that has worked with me over the years. Truly. Even without a treasure trove of commercial success, there is nothing I would have rather spent my time doing. And some of my best buds were forged in the creative process.

It’s time though. Copper Kettle needs to be different.

For those of you following along, you may have noticed me tease about 8 different games over the last 2 years.

This is over-simplifying it: but once a collaboration starts I’ve been filling pages with art, story, market research, and game mechanics etc., then, while I wait for progress - I’ll start a new one.

And a new one…

I’ve worked with two amazing programmers on Nom Chomp (and one false start), which was always intended to be our first project at Copper Kettle, but both have had to prioritize other projects, or life stuff. I get it.

I mean, the common denominator is me right? So clearly I’ve got some learning to do, and the responsibility to move forward is my own.

Over the last 4 months I started learning some baby coding using Construct 3 on a new project called Scraposaur Ltd. Last week I figured out the scale of the project, then estimated that it would take about 8 months to complete. I then realized that this will likely happen before Nom Chomp would be done.

Orrrr…. I could program Nom Chomp.

This is what I’ve decided to do. A decision which I find invigorating in a way that is hard to describe.

I expect that you will see a playable mobile version of it within 4 months. Sadly it will not include any penguins.

This also comes with a kind of cultural shift in how I intend to collaborate in the future.

I’m not sure on the details yet, but I hope that more folks become involved because it is what they truly want to do, not because they have been petitioned. I would like to offer an open door, not send invitations.

I’m working hard to learn how to build better collaborations. In fact, if you’ve worked with me in the past and have some notes, I’d be keen to hear them.

In the meantime, I’m very happy to be squinting at my computer wondering why the code does, or does not work 🖥️.

Thanks for taking a minute to hear me out. I hope you get to spend more time with whatever you’re passionate about.

Cheers.